Healthy diet for woman can ensure good brain health for grandchildren, genetic model: Study
New Delhi (PTI): Mothers who eat apples and herbs during their early pregnancy could be protecting the brain health of their children and grandchildren, a Monash University study using genetic models has found.
The discovery is part of a project that found a mother's diet can affect not just her child's brain but also those of her grandchildren.
Published in Nature Cell Biology, the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute study found that certain foods could help prevent the deterioration of brain function.
This study used roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) as the genetic model because many of their genes are also found in humans, allowing insights into human cells.
The researchers found that a certain molecule present in apples and herbs such as basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage helped in reducing the breakdown of communication cables needed for the brain to work properly.
Senior professor Roger Pocock, with his team, investigated nerve cells in the brain that connect with each other through about 8,50,000 kilometres of cables called axons. For axons to function and survive, essential materials need to be transported along an internal structure that contains microtubules.
Pocock explained that a malfunction that caused the axons to become fragile can lead to brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration.
He said his team used a genetic model with fragile axons that break as animals age. "We tried to find whether natural products found in the diet can stabilise these axons and prevent breakage," he explained.
"We identified a molecule found in apples and herbs that reduces axon fragility -- ursolic acid. How? We found that ursolic acid causes a gene to turn on that makes a specific type of fat. This particular fat also prevented axon fragility as animals age by improving axon transport and therefore its overall health."
Pocock said this type of fat, known as a sphingolipid, had to travel from the mother's intestine, where food is digested, to eggs in the uterus for it to protect axons in the next generation. He said while the results were promising, they still need to be confirmed in humans.
"This is the first time that a lipid/fat has been shown to be inherited," he said. "Further, feeding the mother the sphingolipid protects the axons of two subsequent generations. This means a mother's diet can affect not just their offspring's brain but potentially subsequent generations. Our work supports a healthy diet during pregnancy for optimal brain development and health," Pocock said.
Read the full paper published in Nature Cell Biology, titled 'An Intestinal Sphingolipid Confers Intergenerational Neuroprotection'.
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2018 Kathua rape-murder: HC dismisses mastermind's plea seeking suspension of life sentence
Chandigarh, Mar 18 (PTI): The mastermind behind the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua does not deserve the "concession of suspension of sentence at this stage", the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said while dismissing a plea from former temple caretaker Sanji Ram.
Ram, who was caretaker of the 'devasthanam' (temple) where the crime took place in January 2018, was sentenced to life by a sessions court in Pathankot the following year. His nephew Parvesh Kumar and special police officer Deepak Khajuria were also given life terms.
A division bench of Justices Gurvinder Singh Gill and Ramesh Kumari passed the order on Ram's plea on March 6. The three-page order was made available earlier this week.
Without commenting on the merits of the case, the court said it was of the opinion "that it is not a case where the applicant/appellant deserves the concession of suspension of sentence at this stage".
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"The application, as such, is dismissed," it said.
The court, however, directed the registry to list Ram's main appeal against conviction for final hearing in September this year given the fact that he has already spent a substantial amount of time in custody.
According to the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir crime branch in April 2018, the nomadic girl was abducted on January 10 that year and raped in captivity in the small village temple in Jammu's Kathua region that was exclusively manned by Ram. She was kept sedated for four days and later bludgeoned to death, it said.
Arguing for suspension of Ram's life sentence, senior advocate Vinod Ghai said before the high court that the prosecution examined as many as 114 prosecution witnesses but no concrete evidence was brought on record to establish his involvement.
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He also said Ram had already undergone a substantial period of more than eight years and deserves the concession of suspension of sentence.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir was represented by senior advocate R S Cheema. Advocates Mandeep Singh Basra and Anupinder Brar represented the victim's family.
Cheema recalled the manner in which heinous crime was committed and said based on the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and the circumstances brought on record, the accused's complicity is "clearly evident".
"It has been submitted that since upon findings of guilt having been recorded by the trial court, the presumption of innocence of the applicant is no longer available to him, the applicant does not deserve to be released on bail," he said.
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The Pathankot sessions court had also sentenced three policemen to five years imprisonment for cover up and destruction of evidence while Ram's son Vishal was acquitted.
In June 2019, then sessions judge Tejwinder Singh said, “In the present case, facts are many but truth is one that under a criminal conspiracy, an innocent eight-year-old minor girl has been kidnapped, wrongfully confined, drugged, raped and ultimately murdered. The perpetrators of this crime have acted in such a manner as if there is a 'law of jungle' prevalent in the society."
The judge summed up the enormity of the crime with a couplet by Mirza Ghalib: "Pinha tha daam-e-sakht qareeb ashiyaan ke, udhne hi nahi paye the ki girftar hum hue" (hunters had placed the net near a nest and the young one was caught before it could take its first flight).
In his 432-page judgment, the judge described the crime as a "devilish and monstrous" one committed in the most "shameful, inhumane and barbaric manner" for which poetic justice needs to be done to its perpetrators.
After initial hiccups, the case, which triggered nationwide outrage, was handed over to the crime branch, which unravelled the conspiracy.
In 2018, the Supreme Court directed the case to be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir and directed the sessions court in Pathankot to hear it on a daily basis.
